Feeder from tender or hopper



June 24, 1947. E. c WEBB FEEDER FROM TENDER OR HOPPER 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 20 June 24, 1947. E. c. WEBB 2,422,941

FEEDER FROM TENDER OR HOPPER Filed May 20, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented June 24, 1947 Ernest C. Webb; Bay Village, Ohio, assignor to Iron Fireman Manufacturing. Gompany, Portland, Oreg.

Application May 20, 1944', SerialiNo. 536,523

6 Claims. 1

This invention. relates generally to conveyors and: particularly to a feeder from a locomotive tender;

The main object of this invention is to providea device'forfeeding'coal from the tender of a locomotive toward the fire box of a locomotive in such a manner. that the coal will feed out substantially uniformly throughout the length of the tender.

Thesecondobject is to provide a feeder of the classy described which will be simple to manufacture; not easily rendered inoperative, and producing no crushing action on the coal being: distributed into the feed worm.

Iiaccomplishthese and other objects in a manner' set forth in the following specification as illustrated in the accompanying drawings; in which:

Fig.1 is'a fragmentary vertical'section through the device;

Figl 2. is a transverse section taken along the line 2"--2" in- Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary horizontal section taken along the broken line 3-3' in Fig. 1.

' Eig. 4sis=arr enlargedviewshowing one of the distributing units in a discharging position;

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring in detail to the drawing, there is shown arfioor plate Hl-upon which rests the front Wall and rear wall I2 of a tender, the back spaceof-whose coalspace consists of an inclined plate I3. The external lateral walls M of the tender'arevertical and extend from the floor plate lll t'o a desired height. Between the walls M are placed" theinternal walls |5 which are spaced from thewalls- I4 and-provide-a water leg; The cover for the space between the walls l4 and I5 consists of an inclined plate It.

Between the walls I5 is disposed a worm trough I! which is supported by the saddle l8 and whose tangent sides l9 have their upper ends flared outwardly.

Within the trough I1 is disposed the coal feeding worm 2| to whose shaft 22 power is supplied in any convenient manner in order to propel coal in the direction indicated by the arrow 23. The worm 2| is conventionally shown. The discharge end of the Worm 2| extends into the duct 24 leading to the locomotive, while the opposite end extends into a short section of duct 25 in order to keep the coal away from the bearing of the shaft 22.

Resting on the upper edges 20 of the worm trough I1 is a frame comprised of the channel 2' irons2-6; which serveas guidesfor the oppositely" turned channel iron slides 21- between whichare secured thesomewhat irregular feedingbars 28-,

whose rearward ends 29 overhang the base 30" and whose forward ends 3|- project beyond theforward edge or the top 32. The bars 28 are uniformly spaced along the length of the slides- 21 between the front and rear walls- H and I2. 7

At the rearmost end of-theslides 2T issecured the transverse bar 33 to which is attached the operating link 34'' by means of the bolt- 35. Any convenient means may be employed for provid-- ing a reciprocating motion to the link: 34 itbeing understood that this movement is supplied-simultaneously with the-=rotation of the worm.

Secured to the guides 23 or fixed w-itlrrelation thereto are the floor plates 36- whicharespaced from each other to providethe distributing: openings 31. It- Will be noted that the openings 31 are-directly under" the feeding bars 28 asshow-n in Fig. 1, at which time no coal'canv pass through; theopenings'3l to the war-m 2|.

Also secured tothe guides 26 are the: cover: plates 38; whose rearward edges 39 are almost: directly above the forward ends-3| of the bars" 28; Reinforced angles 40 are placed alongthev topside of the edges 39andthe downwardly slop-- ing edges 4| terminate in the stepped edge 42, which extends slightly" forward ofthe edge: 43 of v the bar'28. The operationrof thedevice.is;as;fol

Assuming that thereis'asupply of coal44in the storagespace liand it is desiredto'. feed sametd the fire box of the locomotive, itis only necessary'to rotate the wormr2| and reciprocate the: bars 28 which causes the coal thatfhas'previously; passed-downwardly by gravity between the edges-.- 39' and; 42 to be moved along; between the: floor plate 36 and the cover plate 38 until it reaches the opening 31, from whence it passes between the flights of the worm 2|. It is of course desirable that the parts above the floor plate 36 be so disposed and shaped as to make the deliveries to the worm 2| less than its full volumetric capacity, thereby loading the worm uniformly throughout the length of the tender without danger of overloading the worm and causing a packing and consequent overloading of the driving mechanism.

It will be borne in mind that one of the main reasons for constructing this device in the manner described is that all of the coal is seldom taken from a tender and in actual practice it is impossible to obtain more than 50% to effective capacity. It can be seen that the coal which is never unloaded becomes packed from vibration and it is often necessary to use a pick to loosen it, if it is found necessary to use an extra supply of coal on a given run. With my device, all of the coal at the bottom of the bin is used first and there is none left to pack between runs.

While I have described this device as having a reciprocating element in parallelism with the worm 2|, it is obvious that the reciprocating movement can be normal to the worm axis, or assume any other desired relationship thereto without departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a fuel feeder of the class described, the combination of a fuel hopper, a worm trough disposed at the bottom of said hopper, a worm in said trough, a floor plate for said trough above said worm having a plurality of openings formed therein, a horizontal reciprocating feeder frame on said floor plate having spaced transverse feeder bars adapted to move fuel along said floor plate toward said openings, and transverse cover plates disposed over said feeder bars, said cover plates having their rearmost portions spaced from said feeder bars and from said floor plate,the rearmost edge of each cover plate being spaced from the foremost edge of the next rearward cover plate.

2. An apparatus of the class described consisting of a coal worm trough, a worm in said trough, horizontally spaced transverse floor plates resting on said trough, transversely spaced feeding bars slidably mounted on said floor plates, means for reciprocating said bars simultaneously, and a plurality of stationary cover plates having spaces therebetween, and between same and the top sides of the feeding bars.

3. In a fuel feeder, the combination of a coal container, the sides of which converge toward a horizontal median'bottom line, a worm trough disposed along said line, a plurality of spaced horizontal transverse floor plates forming a partial cover for said worm trough, cover plates disposed over the openings between said floor plates, feeding bars resting on said floor plates and spaced from the forward edges of said cover plates, andmeans for reciprocating said feeder bars.

4. A feeder for coalconsisting of a hopper having converging sides, a conveyor disposed below the bottom of said hopper, a perforated floor plate between said hopper and conveyor, the perforations in said plate consisting of transverse slots a feeder bar frame adapted to reciprocate along the length of said floor plate, said frame having spaced feederbars extending transversely across said floor plate, the rearward edges of said bars being undercut, the lower side of said bars constituting a closure for said floor slots in one extreme position and fixed plates disposed across the bottom of said hopper above said feeding frame, said cover plates being characterized by having their rearmost edges spaced from the tops of the feeder bars and having the foremost edges thereof in close relation to said feeding bars, the clearance space under said cover plates preventing the crushing of the fuel during the movement of said bars.

5. In a feeder of the class described, the combination of a hopper having converging sides, a conveyor disposed under said hopper, a floor plate between said hopper and conveyor, said fioor plate having a plurality of slots formed therein transversely with said conveyor, a feeding frame including a plurality of feeding bars adapted to reciprocate in a horizontal plane to and from said slots, each of said bars having its rearmost edge overhanging and its foremost lower edge protruding along the top surface of the floor plate while its rearmost overhanging edge is spaced therefrom and a cover plate over each floor plate slot extending close to said feed bar at its forward edge and spaced from said feed bar at its rearmost edge for the purpose of providing extra clearance for coal passing betweensaid cover plate to the underlying slot in said floor plate.

6. A feeder having in combination a'horizontal floor plate provided with a plurality of transverse slots, a feeding frame slidably mounted on said floor plate having transverse feeding bars mounted thereon, the lowermost portion of each bar forming a closure for a floor plate slot and the rearmost portion of each feeding bar being spaced from said floor plate, together with a cover plate spaced above each said feedbar and having its rearward edge spaced from the top of.

the underlying feed bar and having its forward end extending downwardly to the top of saidv feed bar. 7

ERNEST C. WEQB.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Hogg June 20, 1939 

